We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
from Part One - Science and Society
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 November 2014
Money is required to do fundamental scientific research, but the potential benefits of this research are often not clear in advance, even though their worth in terms of contributions to the gross domestic product, historically, have been enormous. Who should pay for fundamental research and why?
This essay is based on an article originally published in Nature Physics on December 1, 2007.
Preparing for a talk on the fiftieth anniversary of the Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer (BCS) theory of superconductivity I was struck by a footnote on the first page of our 1957 paper: “This work was supported in part by the Office of Ordnance Research, U.S. Army” – a program officer whose mission might have included improving artillery shells found it appropriate to fund a project in fundamental science. This spurred me into reflection on funding for scientific research, then and now.
Money is required to do science and, as systems become more complex, more people, equipment, and therefore more money is required for each new result. Naturally, people hark back with sentimentality to the good old days when results could be obtained on a tabletop. In fact, some results are still obtained on tabletops, but the tables are getting larger and the tops more expensive.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
